Ovum: Change in leadership will have consequences on IT industry

The change in Australia's top leadership will have significant consequences for the IT industry, according to analyst firm Ovum.

When the Liberal party inherited Labor's NBN, it had a political imperative to take a different approach and there was always uncertainty as to how strongly newly crowned Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, personally supported that approach, Ovum government technology principal analyst, Al Blake, said.

"But now with his elevation to Prime Minister, there may possibly be an allowance for an NBN recalibration. Given the political realities it would be impossible to go back to the original Labor plan - but we may see the proportion of technologies slide further towards FTTP which would mean world-call broadband performance for a greater percentage of Australians," he said. "Having someone with an understanding of technology at the highest position in government cannot be underestimated.

"The issue now is for the ICT industry both inside and outside of the public sector, to rise to the challenge and deliver of the promise of a connected, technologically literate and effective Australia."

Turnbull has expressed his support of open access to government data, importance of digital literacy and he also created the Digital Transformation Office (DTO) with his department at the time, which was modelled on the UK's Government Digital Service (GDS).

"One of the risks associated with last night's coup, should Turnbull have failed in his bid, was that DTOs continued existence could have been somewhat precarious, with its fortunes tied to an unsuccessful challenger. That didn't eventuate and with their previous champion now head of the country, it's hard to see how DTO can go anywhere apart from up, regardless of who takes over the reins at Communications," Blake said.

Nitro CEO and founder, Sam Chandler, stated that high-growth technology companies have created more jobs in the global economy in the past couple of decades than any other.

"The real money is in technology. Turnbull didn't talk about iron ore in his speech, or coal or wool - he talked about technology," Chandler said. "As a nation, we once rode on the sheep's back, and then the mining boom, and it appears that now, thankfully, we have leadership that recognises that for the next several decades, we must ride the wave of opportunity created by technology and innovation."